Vidjagame Apocalypse 210 – Choose Pacifism

This week brings a storm of retro-styled games and revamped re-releases, but before we get to that, Michael Grimm joins us for a look at five games that let you choose paths of (relative) nonviolence, incapacitating and outwitting your enemies instead of straight-up killing them. Then it’s time to dig into Full Throttle Remastered, Telltale’s Guardians of the Galaxy, the Disney Afternoon Collection, our collective disappointment over the unexpected demise of the NES Classic, and the characters you’d want to see work together.

Question of the Week
Has there ever been a game character you regretted killing?

16 thoughts on “Vidjagame Apocalypse 210 – Choose Pacifism”

In an attempt to remain spoiler free: near the end of Nier: Automata, finishing sidequests led me to do something heinous enough to a named individual that I felt terrible enough about myself I just bum-rushed the ending, rendering all my time trying to see every sidequest null and void.

QOTW: In the original demon’s souls Maiden Astrea / Garl Vinland boss fight. You need to kill her to obtain her demon soul but she doesn’t want to fight you. Of course Garl basically acts as the boss to defend her and when you kill him she just commits suicide because she knows she can’t defeat you. That was a brutal soul to get. #2 would be silf the wolf from dark souls of you did the DLC the vid before the fight changes to the boss recognizing you and it hesitantly picking it’s sword to fight you.

Maybe that one guy in GTA IV, though the next time, I used a sniper rifle.

In Fire Emblem, plenty of times. My first run in Sacred Stones had me sacrifice a Knight to finish the stage. Even though I trained a better unit by the end of the game, the “in memorial” part of the credits never let me forget it.

QOTW: After avoiding JRPGs for most of my life I decided to dive into the genre last year by purchasing Chrono Trigger on the Nintendo DS. When given the option to fight Magus or spare him, it seemed to me that fighting him would be the more fun choice so I wasted that fool without giving it a monents thought. By the time I learned that, had I spared him he would have joined my team, it was too late to go back in my save file a redo the fight. I had to finish the game with the knowledge that I had blown the opportunity to play with an emo prince on my team.

I had the same horse through out most of the opening of the game, I think there was even an achievement for it. Anyway one random day we were attacked by wolves. I came to a stop drew my gun attempting to kill one of them close by.. I’m tracking the wolf and pull the trigger but not before my steed had swing his head, right, between me and my target. I had just shot the very horse I had been riding from the beginning.
Filled with righteous murderous rage I slaughter the pack and begin skinning the bodies. Approaching a wolf body near my faithful steed I hit the button to begin gathering the pelt. Suddenly my dead horse is nothing but a skinless corpse. In my haste I didn’t notice I wasn’t close enough to the wolf. Not only had I accidentally killed him, I had accidentally skinned him. It was pretty sickening.

Fucking fantastic Top 5 this week.
One of my favorite things in gaming is stealth games where you can beat the game without killing anyone. As my Steam Achievement Showcase can attest:http://steamcommunity.com/id/darthender/

QOTW: In a sick way I regret Killing Saren in Mass Effect 1, I feel like his input and brashness would have been welcome In the coming Mass effects, Especially 2 with the suicide mission or in 3 where he’d know how to fight the Reapers better than anyone else. (bad analogy incoming) It’d be like having Shadow the Hedgehog for sonic 2 and 3.

The Indiana Jones Lucas Arts games also had pacifist paths. It was difficult in the Last Crusade, but if you had the right items and said the right dialog I believe you could avoid all of the fight sequences.

Fate of Atlantis was even more explicit where early in the game it has you choose the game path that you preferred: easier puzzles, harder puzzles, or more action oriented (Team, Wits, or Fists).

QOTW: Spec Ops: the Line.
I regretted killing the numerous innocent civilians in the scene with the white phosphorus mortar. I was playing the game in my usual mindless kill mode, and the reveal of the mother trying to save her child from the incendiary blast left me feeling physically ill. I was used to the slaughter at that point, so the point where I learned I killed children in one of the most horrible ways imaginable left me a liiiiiiitle bit regretful.

Why do youse guys keep making moutians out of molehills with dumb men on the internet like 10 people in a Reddit post were upset with a woman being the lead in Battlefront 2(BtW Chris Episode 8 is fucking awful it’s so cornball and by the #s) just like the Mass Effect thing last month you can’t waste breath ranting about like 20 dickheads it’s just like Gamergate all over again screaming at the converted for like 10 unfun minutes an episode

In fable 2, i had just discovered a rune that let me rename my dog. A year earlier I had lost my dog of 14 years so I decided to giver her the name. So… spoiler in Fable 2, after you kill the final boss you are forced to make a choice. Kill your family or kill your dog. I SHOULD HAVE CHOSEN TO KILL MY FAMILY!!! It was far more painful than I would have ever imagined. I chose my dog thinking it was the most morally ethical choice so it should have positive results. I should have thought that out because my family was worthless. There was a lonely feeling doing anything post game without my dog… and I discovered the save system is designed to make sure you can’t go back.